Maximising credit card cashback but is this legit?

flopstocks

I have noticed a workaround enabling me to max out my purchase credit cards earning maximum points and cashback etc..  But if I keep doing this could I get into trouble.

I am able to send a large friends and family Paypal payment to my partner which she can withdraw and send back to my current account to pay the card off the next month.

Is this legit, and could I land in any trouble if I keep doing this.

Tucosalamanca

I wouldn't trust any money with Paypal, it will almost certainly end in tears at some point.
Have you ever tried communicating with them?

Also, would the transaction be treated as a cash advance and lead to credit card charges?

MrFrugalFever

flopstocks said:

I have noticed a workaround enabling me to max out my purchase credit cards earning maximum points and cashback etc..  But if I keep doing this could I get into trouble.

I am able to send a large friends and family Paypal payment to my partner which she can withdraw and send back to my current account to pay the card off the next month.

Is this legit, and could I land in any trouble if I keep doing this.

I’m not sure you will get in to serious trouble, or be breaking any laws but you will almost certainly trigger some red flags with AML and possibly breach the ‘fair use’ policy of your cashback card provider.

I found a workaround similar to yours with the Curve cashback and ended up having my account forceably closed with all manner of ‘source of funds’ and ‘account under investigation’ messages from the relevant banks and curve involved. Curve deemed it as a severe breach of their fair use policy (cash recycling) and therefore closed my account.

flopstocks

Thanks, sounds like I should quit while I am ahead then.  It is very easy to do, and the PayPal friends and family means no charges.

MrFrugalFever

flopstocks said:

Thanks, sounds like I should quit while I am ahead then.  It is very easy to do, and the PayPal friends and family means no charges.

I would. A one off isn’t going to ring any alarm bells but repeated attempts most certainly will.

[Deleted User]

flopstocks said:

Thanks, sounds like I should quit while I am ahead then.  It is very easy to do, and the PayPal friends and family means no charges.

Could you do it maybe monthly, claim it's rent or bill payment? Rather than taking the mick doing it every day, a regular monthly payment is less likely to flag stuff up

phillw

flopstocks said:

I have noticed a workaround enabling me to max out my purchase credit cards earning maximum points and cashback etc..  But if I keep doing this could I get into trouble.

I am able to send a large friends and family Paypal payment to my partner which she can withdraw and send back to my current account to pay the card off the next month.

I wouldn't have expected you to get points/cashback for a friends and family paypal transaction. I thought they used a different code for purchases.

It sounds like something the people offering you a free service, wouldn't want you to do.

MrFrugalFever

Deleted_User said:

flopstocks said:

Thanks, sounds like I should quit while I am ahead then.  It is very easy to do, and the PayPal friends and family means no charges.

Could you do it maybe monthly, claim it's rent or bill payment? Rather than taking the mick doing it every day, a regular monthly payment is less likely to flag stuff up

I think that would depend on how large the transaction was, I am assuming to make it worthwhile we are talking several thousand pounds?

It’s never been said in writing to me or made public but I was led to believe that a trigger for ‘Source of funds’ requests due to AML flags would come in to play at around the £100k mark (money coming in), if it was deemed to be significantly above the norm.
Just talking from experience with Revolut, however, NatWest (my main current account) did not trigger anything at £100k.
Mine was savings and simply moving money around so no laws broken so to speak.